Tom Price: The U.S. House needs ‘red state’ leadership
Hours before New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tore into House Speaker John Boehner for pulling the plug on Hurricane Sandy aid, a Georgia congressman was getting his licks in from the GOP right.
U.S. Rep. Tom Price was on WMAL in Washington this morning, a conservative talk-radio station aimed at the D.C. elite, to discuss Tuesday’s House vote on the fiscal cliff.
Price voted against the measure and his speaker – as did every GOP member of the House from Georgia. But Price, who becomes vice-chairman of the House Budget Committee in the next Congress, is undoubtedly the most ambitious member of the Georgia delegation. And Boehner is up for re-election tomorrow.
Listen to Price’s interview in full here:
A truncated transcript follows:
Price: “At the end of the day these kinds of bills are never all good or all bad. My assessment was that it ultimately raised taxes and didn’t decrease any spending. In fact it increased spending.”
WMAL: “You voted against your speaker of the House.”
Price: “The vote is really fascinating. If you look at the votes that were ‘yes’ on the Republican side – there were 85 of them. Seventy of them come from blue states. I really think, and I’ve been talking about this for a couple months now. I think this is a red state-blue state issue.
“When we were talking about previous ‘solutions,’ it really broke down in our conference between Republicans who are from red states and those who are from blue states. It’s a different conversation that we need to have within our own conference as we move forward with the kind of positive solutions that I think are out there.”
WMAL: “Is there a leadership crisis within the Republican caucus?”
Price: “I don’t think so….
“At some point, you have to draw a line in the sand, and we have been unwilling as a conference to do that. I think that’s where we will come out of this debate and out of this process, recognizing that the president has not been an honest broker and has not been willing to put any spending reductions on the table….”
WMAL: “You’re saying this is a red-state, blue-state issue. We’ve got leadership from blue states. You’re from a red state. You’re saying, yes, we do need to draw a line in the sand….There needs to be a change here in the party, doesn’t there?”
Price: “I think you will see a significant change in perspective and a significant change in strategy, and it will come from the maturation of the now-sophomore class, of the 87 new folks who came last year, and the 37 new folks who are coming to the Republican conference right now….”
WMAL: “We’ve heard there are 20 or more Republicans who are willing to block the speaker’s election tomorrow. Have you heard anything about that?”
Price: “I don’t know anything about that.”WMAL: “If something happens, would you be willing to step forward? A lot of people have mentioned your name.”
Price: “This palace intrigue is wonderful for these discussions, but the fact of the matter is, what we need to do is to get down to business and get spending under control in this country…”
WMAL: “You didn’t answer the question….”
Price: “I think we need red-state representation in both our leadership as well as the organizing committees that we have.”
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
For instant updates, follow me on Twitter, or connect with me on Facebook.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
173 comments Add your comment
Rabbit
January 2nd, 2013
8:48 pm
It is with regret that I am compelled to speak intemperately about the GA House delegation and Price in particular. To a middle-aged white man, every one of these cruel hearted sycophants choose to follow the most senseless anti American political path imaginable. With unapologetic jingoism they have whipped their sadly manipulated base into a state of constant fear such that gun brokers have broken one day sales records over the last two months over a half dozen times.
The President and the sensible Representatives know our country can go forward if leaders will come together. The small mr. price just wants to divide the country. I just wish my fellow Georgians could see.
Village Idiot
January 2nd, 2013
8:57 pm
“You’re saying this is a red-state, blue-state issue.”
This story is exactly what is wrong with our federal government right now. The federal government is supposed to deal UNITED STATES issues! It is very sad that Republicans blame the president for creating the antagonism that permeates both chambers of Congress. It is also very sad that many people in the GOP, including their candidate for president, claimed that a large portion of the electorate view themselves as victims of society. This is what is known in psychology as projecting. The Republicans are simply putting their own emotions onto the general public. They believe that since they hate the Democrats, Democrats must also hate them. Since they despise the elderly and the lower classes, the elderly and the lower classes must also despise them. It is very childish and immature to view the world in such stark terms, but nobody ever claimed that you had to be a mature person to run for Congress. If you couple that with the fact that many of these people ran unopposed on the ballot, you can see where many problems in our legislative bodies originate. Please put aside your blatant hatred of those whom you were elected to represent and do your job!
Serious Robuck
January 2nd, 2013
8:58 pm
Well said, Rabbit. Dr. Prissy Price’s divisive comments should get him defeated in a well educated district, but they won’t, unfortunately.
td
January 2nd, 2013
9:02 pm
Rabbit
January 2nd, 2013
8:48 pm
You, my friend, are delusional. Tom Price and the Tea party want to make sure we do not go bankrupt and you call it wrong and instead you support more spending, higher taxes and more borrowing to the point that we will not leave our children and grandchildren better off then we are.
Now explain to us how this is suppose to be better for American then living within oue means?
hiram
January 2nd, 2013
9:05 pm
@ serious
In a state, where every business with a waiting area, has wide eyed, bulging veined, red faced, simpletons sitting on the edge of their seats, watching the big screen tv, tuned to fox-made-up news, with the volume so loud, it’s vibrating the windows, why do you waste your time citing actual facts? They’ve been hypnotized by Rupert, Rush, and Glenn, et al., and if given the command, they will crawl on all fours and bark like dogs. You are wasting time that could be spent on something productive.
Voter
January 2nd, 2013
9:13 pm
@hiram – take your meds, drink some water and swallow. It’s time for adults to talk.
Serious Robuck
January 2nd, 2013
9:18 pm
Hiram, I hope you’re not really in or from Hiram. I’m out there a lot for work, sorry to say. Your perfectly drafted description of those waiting in every business there could not be more accurate. “Hideously stupid” is my description of that crowd.
Serious Robuck
January 2nd, 2013
9:23 pm
Hiram, in re-reading your post, I’m sure you meant the entire State of Georgia, and not just pathetic little ignorant Hiram, Georgia. I reiterate my point in your larger, more appropriate and accurate context.
td
January 2nd, 2013
9:29 pm
Serious Robuck
January 2nd, 2013
9:23 pm
I live in this same area and there are mostly good God fearing conservatives that live here that pay their taxes and commit few crimes. I call these good citizens. I am sure you can say the same about your downtown neighbors.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
January 2nd, 2013
9:35 pm
I’ve been to 5 Points and other such places and I can safely say that mindless immorality is not a sign of intelligence. I can understand if decency frightens you, especially the way they look at your purple mohawk. And they are not at all impressed with your new boyfriend, mister! So why don’t you just stay up in happy land where you can hate those who don’t clutch their pillow and cry out for government help like you do?
Rabbit
January 2nd, 2013
9:35 pm
(first, I’ll ignore the insult)
“…explain to us how this is suppose to be better for American then (sic) living within our means?”
We are not a parliamentary government. We should not have an opposition party.
In a system built around an administration and a bicameral Congress, everybody is part of the government — and the government only functions if there exists a certain baseline spirit of cooperation between the mutually indispensable parts.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
January 2nd, 2013
9:38 pm
Ooops-
I’ve been to 5 Points and other such places and I can safely say that mindless immorality is not a sign of intelligence, serious. I can understand if decency frightens you, especially the way they look at your purple mohawk. And they are not at all impressed with your new boyfriend, mister! So why don’t you just stay up in happy land where you can hate those who don’t clutch their pillow and cry out for government help like you do?
Real Athens
January 2nd, 2013
9:41 pm
“Yeah, that whole auto bailout thingee never happened, did it, RA?”
The Michigan economy is solely auto manufacturing. Again, you’re just not that deft are you? Education is your friend.
Real Athens
January 2nd, 2013
9:44 pm
“mindless immorality” is projecting a stereotype on everything that is not exactly like you.
What did you call yourself on this blog 2 months ago?
Voter
January 2nd, 2013
9:49 pm
For our liberal Democrats who love obozo bin biden, riddle me this: this bill recently passed, how does $12.1 Billion in tax credits to the Wind-Energy Industry help us? That’s $12.1 billion in cost to the tax payers. More $ to the debt with no return.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
January 2nd, 2013
9:51 pm
Just how important is the auto industry? Each year, auto manufacturing generates $500 billion in paychecks and $70 billion in tax revenues. It’s an industry whose future is getting brighter once again. Since 2010, Michigan has added more than 23,000 automotive manufacturing jobs, an increase of 20 percent, and the auto industry will produce two times the number of cars it did three years ago. – Governor Rick Snyder
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
January 2nd, 2013
9:53 pm
I wasn’t on this blog two years ago.
And what is “Hideously stupid” if not a stereotype?
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
January 2nd, 2013
9:55 pm
Pardon me, two “months” ago.
I was not on this blog then.
ACG
January 2nd, 2013
9:55 pm
Tom Price is just another extremist ideologue. He doesn’t strike me as being strong enough to be a leader. Watch him during press conferences. His shifty eyes mean he has something to hide.
td
January 2nd, 2013
10:00 pm
Rabbit
January 2nd, 2013
9:35 pm
Our founders were very concerned about tyranny and therefore made it very difficult for any one branch or even one house to get anything accomplished in a short period of time. The intentionally deluded power of each branch in the Constitution. They intentionally made it where one party could not dictate. There is a process that the Congress has set out to deal with money and it has not been followed. The executive nor the Senate is allowed to deal with money the house has passed a budget and all the appropriation bills that the Senate refuses to take up. This is the real problem.
Real Athens
January 2nd, 2013
10:00 pm
I said two months ago, Mr. Smith.
Hideously stupid? Must be self projection. I didn’t write that.
Rabbit
January 2nd, 2013
10:02 pm
Economic calamity is less dangerous to the republic than a government that cannot function.
Real Athens
January 2nd, 2013
10:03 pm
“The executive nor the Senate is allowed to deal with money the house has passed a budget and all the appropriation bills that the Senate refuses to take up. This is the real problem.”
The problem should be self evident. It is to the rest of us here.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
January 2nd, 2013
10:05 pm
I was projecting a stereotype upon a stereotype and you inserted yourself in the center of it. Do you only read my comments, girlfriend? You don’t lust after me, do you?
Real Athens
January 2nd, 2013
10:10 pm
“Do you only read my comments, girlfriend? You don’t lust after me, do you?”
Sexist, baseless, hyperbole.
Class.You can’t buy it.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
January 2nd, 2013
10:12 pm
See, I got you all excited.
hiram
January 2nd, 2013
10:15 pm
@ serious
Not from Hiram, the place. For Brig. Gen. Hiram Bronson Granbury,(Granbury’s Texas Brigade), Cleburne’s Division, Hardee’s Corps, Army of Tennessee – one of four dead Confederate Generals, including Maj. Gen. Pat Cleburne, laid on the back porch of the Carnton Plantation House, after the Battle of Franklin, Tn. Having knowledge of Southern history makes Georgia’s current state of affairs even more depressing. The state is no stranger to scandal and corruption, but it hasn’t been this openly corrupt since the Yazoo Land Fraud. The current politicians are lucky that it’s not 1795, when the corrupt politicians involved in that scandal had to literally flee for their lives. I’m convinced that we have the most ignorant population since the state has been in existence.
Serious Robuck
January 2nd, 2013
10:17 pm
As a practicing attorney at age 62, raised on a dirt road in South Georgia, educated at the University of Georgia, I assure you that I do not have a purple mohawk, nor do I live in downtown Atlanta. I am, however, often in the outer suburbs of Atlanta. I do a lot of work there. I have many friends there who are admirable professionals and wonderful people. That being said, I wouldn’t want to spend the night there, and I certainly wouldn’t want my sons to raise my grandchildren there. You can have it, td, with all your God-fearing, gun-toting buddies. And you can shove it.
td
January 2nd, 2013
10:30 pm
It is unbelievable at what I am seeing on these blogs. The progressives won the election and yet it is the same progressives that are angry.
hiram
January 2nd, 2013
10:30 pm
@ serious
UGA here also. If I were you, I wouldn’t invest any emotion in arguing with td. He has never had this much attention in his life – he’s addicted – here 20 hours a day spouting unqualified radical right wing nonsense, he either reads on fringe sites, or hears in the right wing screaming media. He’s never had an original, or rational thought about anything in his life.
Real Athens
January 2nd, 2013
10:36 pm
“See, I got you all excited.”
Isn’t that the only reason you’re here?
You really should engage your neighbors across the fence or in your front yard. Talk to random people on the street. Gather around the water cooler at work and engage in an open forum of ideas and opinions. Leave the county once in awhile.
I understand it’s hard for you, but you’ll be a better person for it and the world will be a better place.
123
January 2nd, 2013
10:52 pm
What do you expect from td?
He is a dolt who had to pay a date service to find him a mail order bride
Says a lot about his social skills or lack of them.
td
January 2nd, 2013
11:09 pm
123
January 2nd, 2013
10:52 pm
Up to your same old tricks Auntie Christ or should I say Satan.
123
January 2nd, 2013
11:15 pm
td
Its true. Why lie?
Kris
January 2nd, 2013
11:29 pm
Kinda looks like this is no longer a political forum as the Name implies….
About Political Insider
From the ATL to DC with Jim Galloway: Because all politics is local.
But has become a personal attack forum….
td
January 2nd, 2013
11:32 pm
Kris
January 2nd, 2013
11:29 pm
Well the world must be ending because I actually agree with you.
Kris
January 2nd, 2013
11:35 pm
td…..thanks…….now if the donkeys and elephants can learn to play together!
Kris
January 2nd, 2013
11:44 pm
And speaking of house jokes…..
Pulling no punches, Christie declared: “Last night, the House majority failed most basic test of leadership and they did so with callous disregard to the people of my state. … It was disappointing and disgusting to watch.” He also unapologetically named names: “There’s only one group to blame … the House majority, and their Speaker, John Boehner.” He added that the relief bill “just could not overcome the toxic internal politics of the House majority.”
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/02/opinion/avlon-christie-sandy-aid/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
yuzeyurbrane
January 2nd, 2013
11:47 pm
I disagree with those who think td, cc and voter are the same poster. The key evidence is spelling—td spells like he went to a govt. school.
Shine
January 2nd, 2013
11:55 pm
Gov Christie, Rep King, and other republicans think the House needs less nuts like Rep Price.
td
January 3rd, 2013
12:00 am
Shine
January 2nd, 2013
11:55 pm
Gov Christie, Rep King, and other republicans think the House needs less nuts like Rep Price.
That is because those establishment Republicans know the Tea party wing is just about ready to take over the leadership of the party.
Kris
January 3rd, 2013
12:06 am
Prime example is why we need term limits, fat jawed politicians like this..
http://news.yahoo.com/mcconnell–fiscal-cliff-deal-not-great–but-it-shields-americans-from-tax-hike-010532341.html
Doug
January 3rd, 2013
12:07 am
Let’s just pray someone like Tom Price replaces Boehner. This will certainly assure Democratic takeover of the House in ‘14.
td
January 3rd, 2013
12:11 am
Doug
January 3rd, 2013
12:07 am
Let’s just pray someone like Tom Price replaces Boehner. This will certainly assure Democratic takeover of the House in ‘14.
The great statistics man of the left Nate Silver wrote an article and said there is less then a 5% chance that Dems will control the house for the next 10 years.
Kris
January 3rd, 2013
12:15 am
Doug……Agreeed Bonehead “boehner” needs to GO~
123
January 3rd, 2013
12:25 am
td
Forget Nate. What is your man Rove saying?
jeepers
January 3rd, 2013
12:26 am
td tea party on its way out the door my friend- their zenith is long past
Serious Robuck
January 3rd, 2013
12:27 am
td, Nate Silver is a VERY smart guy. You…are not.
United States
January 3rd, 2013
12:38 am
We’ll face default issue again soon. Some have already called for letting it happen. Question to ask ourselves…let it default, or compromise? Because it’s clear NO ONE is going to get 100% of what they want, if everybody is elected based on a no-compromise platform.
United States
January 3rd, 2013
12:50 am
I respect the Tea Party’s right to their opinion…For anyone thinking Tea Party will be quiet… I just read Reuters article… excerpt:
“Previous battles in Congress have been marked by Tea Party activists around the country bombarding their elected representatives, mostly Republicans, calling on them to hold the conservative line.
Many did not bother ahead of the fiscal cliff deal, a bipartisan agreement to raise tax rates on incomes of more than $450,000 per household.
“We knew the Republican leadership would cave in,” said Debbie Dooley, a coordinator at national umbrella group Tea Party Patriots and a founder of the Atlanta Tea Party. “So we didn’t expend a lot of energy on this issue.”
Instead, Dooley said activists in her home state of Georgia are focused on educating voters about America’s spiraling debt and seeking a replacement for Saxby Chambliss, who was forced into a runoff election in 2008 and only narrowly managed to return to the Senate.
No one has announced a challenge to Chambliss, but Georgia representatives Tom Price and Paul Broun are seen as potential candidates. Chambliss could not be reached for comment.
“If a credible candidate comes forward, then Saxby Chambliss is in major trouble,” Dooley said.